In the competitive world of low-cost retailers, Target has led the pack. The leak of millions of customers’ personal data with implications of identity theft and fraud called into question their status as one of the top-retailers and has had their executives reeling.

The retail industry will lose an estimated $8.76 billion to return fraud this year, and $3.39 billion during the holiday season alone, according to the National Retail Federation’s 2013 Return Fraud Survey. Overall, 5.8% of holiday returns are fraudulent, up slightly from 4.6% last year.

Despite reporting an uptick in organized retail crime, the National Retail Federation revealed that retail theft rates decreased in 2011, according to preliminary results of the organization's latest National Retail Security survey.

Shoplifting, employee or supplier fraud, organized retail crime and administrative errors cost the retail industry $41.7 billion in the United States in 2011, representing 1.6% in sales, according to the Global Retail Theft Barometer released Tuesday by Checkpoint Systems.

Accertify, a provider of software, tools and strategies for preventing fraud and a subsidiary of American Express, announced that Abercrombie & Fitch has implemented its Interceptas fraud prevention platform to enhance the retailer's ability to protect against credit card fraud in its direct-to-consumer business.

INSIGHTS

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in May 2015 vs. May 2014 and noted...

SPECIAL REPORTS

Retailer Today’s Best Retailers to Work With special report is now available. We surveyed more than 330 supplier company representatives for this first-of-its-kind research project, and the results are fascinating. Suppliers shared their views about major industry issues and perceptions of the business practices of top trading partners in the areas of leadership, strategy, collaboration and execution.